The
Students Guide to VHDL teaches the fundamental modeling
features of VHDL, showing how the features are used for the design
of digital systems. It is organized so that it can be read
linearly from front to back, as a structured self-learning guide
to the language.

This very good
book is suitable for use as a texbook for introductory VHDL
classes, and it will also serve practicing engineers who need to
acquire basic VHDL fluency, without going into the full (and
complex) details of the language.

Features detailed
through the book include the use of signals, entities and
architectures for structural modeling; processes and programming
data types and statements for behavioral modeling; and concurrent
statements for functional modeling. The book also covers some
advanced features, including resolved signal types, generics and
configuration.

Each chapter
introduces a number of related concepts or language facilities and
includes exercises after each one.

Chapter 1:
presents the basic concepts of a hardware description language and
describes the reasons for its use and the benefits that ensue. It
introduces the basic concepts underlying VHDL, serving as a basis
for examples in the next chapters.

Chapters 2,
3 and 4: cover the aspects of VHDL that are more similar
to conventional programming languages, and which may be used to
describe the behavior of a system in algorithmic terms.

Chapter 2
explains the basic type system of the language and introduces the
scalar data types.